


The Ties that Bind Us

by lilacSkye



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Families of Choice, Gen, Protective Siblings, Psychological Trauma, Sibling Love, Spoilers for Conquest route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 13:05:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacSkye/pseuds/lilacSkye
Summary: Camilla's thoughts upon discovering the true nature of the thing she used to call Father.A slightly canon-divergent reinterpretation of chapter 27 of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. Camilla and Xander centric. Obviously, be mindful of spoilers for Conquest Route.Disclaimer: Fire Emblem Fates and its characters are property of Intelligent System. I own nothing.





	The Ties that Bind Us

**Author's Note:**

> It was supposed to be a quick drabble to get myself in the mood to write but then it kinda grew too much. I somewhat lost steam towards the end and didn't really know how to wrap it to a close, I hope it's not too jarring.
> 
> I own nothing. I just write for the fun of it.

Father was a monster.

Camilla had always known it, Leo was certain of it, Elise - sweet, always optimistic Elise - suspected it. Even Xander, wrapped tightly in his cape of denial that serves as a shield from his own feelings, must have known, deep down. Long gone was the boy who wished for nothing more than make his Father proud, taken over by a hardened, exhausted general with a bleeding heart and bloodied hands.

Father was a monster who hit and shattered whatever he touched, they all knew.

But they were his children. His cursed offspring. His godforsaken blood flowed through their veins. They were monsters just as well. They had to let themselves turn into bloodthirsty beasts just to survive. Who did not was simply left to die. Too many little graves in the royal chapel were witness to this.

They all were monsters, tainted and hopeless, constantly humiliated and beaten into blind servility just to be allowed to live another day. Used and broken beyond repair.

All, but one.

Anybody with eyes could see Corrin was not one of them. She shone, her natural brightness made it even lighter by contrast with the dark cloak they were draped with. She laughed and cried freely, when they frowned and killed.

She was not a monster. She was the angel the heavens had sent to slay the foul beasts plaguing this world. She'd be the death of them all, she'd be their salvation.

It all changed once Father sat on the Hoshidan throne, once his skin started to melt into a thick, gray slime, once the well defined features - once regal and wise, now perpetually contorted by hatred and evil - boiled to the bone underneath.

Father was a monster. A monster was their Father.

Xander, who always strived to appear braver than he'd felt if only to offer reprieve to his siblings, staggered back, eyes wide and pale as a sheet, Siegfried drooping low. Leo, who always strived to step out of Xander's protective shadow, choked and stumbled back, Brynhildr firmly clutched to his chest. Elise covered her mouth with her hands, an unspeakable horror filling her eyes.

Camilla did not react. Her body froze, her breath seized, and for a second she thought she'd finally die. The blood on her hands, the one that's not visible, the one that she could not scrub away no matter how many times she tried, itched through her gloves, screamed revenge.

Father was a monster, and so was she. The axe slipped through her grasp and fell to the ground.

She couldn't do it. After the painful metamorphosis she went through because of this… creature… she was too far gone, too dependent on him to raise her hand against him. To kill him would mean denying everything she’d been up to that moment. She glanced at Xander, still and shellshocked, and saw a mirror of her conflict taking place in his eyes, a war with no winners.

The creature stalked towards her, Bölverk raised and ready to cleave her head off. She fell to her knees, waited for her execution. She closed her eyes.

The blow never came. Instead, three pained groans came, and her eyes snapped open just in time to see Corrin, Leo and Elise blasted away and tumbling gracelessly to the ground, blood seeping from the newly formed gaps in their armors, where the cursed blade cut through the metal and tore the flesh apart.

The world stopped for an endless moment, time ticked away by the shallow breaths and drops of blood soaking the capes and staining the floor, and then spun again, so fast that Camilla felt sick and unsteady as instinct took hold and she found herself on her feet again, muscle taut and ready to spring into action.

Elise coughed and more blood spurted out of her mouth, staining her lips like the lipstick Camilla owned and that Elise would sometimes steal to try it on.

Camilla saw red.

A belligerent scream tore through her throat, inarticulate, primal in its desire to sink her blade in her enemy's flesh, to claw at those sunken eyes that had been cause to such grief for her siblings, to rip off the melting skin inch by inch with her bare hands.

It was only on second thought that she realized her voice had not been alone.

The creature _laughed_ , unimpressed, or perhaps challenging, and turned away, sliding through the marble floor with surprising speed. A trail of viscous, translucent silvery slime stained the otherwise pristine white stone.

It moved, and in a heartbeat it was standing over Corrin was, still gasping and wheezing blood, her Yato firmly clenched in her hands and the flames of defiance burning in her eyes. Bölverk swung, and before she knew it, Camilla moved.

The impact was dreadful. Camilla felt the shockwave run through her arms and torso and legs, shattering bone and cutting through muscle. The handle of her axe, her trusted killing axe, bent and splintered under the pressure. Bölverk would have cleaved it neatly in two, and Camilla with it, had it not been for the second blade who joined and supported hers, offering its might to her cause.

The purple flames engulfing Siegfried's dark blade pulsed with unbridled energy, taller and more scorching than Camilla had ever seen them. Waves of deathly power rippled from the legendary blade, the dark stone imbued with the dragon's power glowing like a beacon of death.

But try as it might, Siegfried's hellfire was but a mere candle flame when compared to the eyes of its wielder.

Fire. A raging flare of fury and fear and a defiance Xander never had but Corrin taught him, taught them all, day after day, fight after fight. Eyes narrow as slits, he stared down at the monster who once they called Father, saw him for what it was and what it once had been, and disgust contorted his face.

The monster looked stricken for a moment, or as stricken as a mass of boiling muck around decaying bone could be, but then scoffed haughtily and poured even more pressure on Bölverk, still caught in the criss-crossed sword and axe. Camilla's arms trembled and threatened to give way. She bit her cheek until she tasted a pang of iron on the tip of her tongue.

“You dare to point your blades at me, children of mine?” the creature spoke from the otherworld it came from, mockingly despite the eerie reverberation. “Dare to rebel against who gave life to you, who raised you? No, you will not. You know better than that. You know what happens to those who disappoint me. You do not want to disobey me.”

The monster sneered. For a second, Garon's malicious smirk flashed through the slime and Xander's expression grew even darker, his eyes even more incensed. Camilla felt a shiver run down her spine, the image of men and women and children slaughtered and disemboweled simply because they were in Father's way or were not quick enough to cater to his wishes came to the forefront of her mind. A thin sheet of sweat beaded her forehead and her breath hitched violently, the nausea she had grown so skilled to keep hidden behind a smile now causing her head to spin.

“You will _not_ raise your blade against your family, Xander.”

The words were final, a command, pronounced with an authority that bordered on a death sentence. Bölverk pushed again, with predatory ferocity, and Camilla was overwhelmed. Her arms burned and her fingers slipped along the handle of her much smaller axe, her chest hurt and her heart was beating madly against her ribcage. She had half a mind to turn and yell at Leo, Corrin and Elise to run, but she could feel the familiar pulse of Elise's healing magic rippling through the air, tending to the wounds her older siblings had sustained to protect her from further damage. If Leo and Corrin could not move due to their wound, then it was up to Camilla and Xander to hold their ground enough to give them time.

Leo and Elise had unabashedly taken Corrin's side and refused to stand back. Now it was their turn to do the same.

The realization hit like a hammer slamming at the pit of her stomach. What they were about to do, the grievous betrayal they had all dreamed of, at least once in their life, but never worked up the courage to do. What was about to unravel, events completely unheard of in the kingdom of Nohr, where the ruler was absolute as a god and mercy, even in the face of blood ties, was a foreign concept.

A sentence. A brand that, in the best case scenario they manage to survive the fight, would forever mark them for the rest of their days and beyond. The mark of patricide.

She glanced at Xander, and she found him staring back at her, firm and unwavering, the shadow of a solemn vow taken in the shadows, the ghosts of their departed siblings the only witnesses, clear in his unfaltering posture, in his clenched jaw.

And with that she knew her brother who had never so much as dared put his king's orders in question had come prepared to fight the monster who resided in Father's body, to honor that vow between two grieving, bloodstained children even if it meant going against everything he was raised to be, even if it meant he would draw his last breath by doing so.

It would be easier to let go. But Leo's labored breaths as he stumbles to his feet, power rippling around Brynhildr, Elise's soft sobs and Corrin calling weakly for their names rooted her to the spot.

For them. All for them.

No more blood of their family will be shed.

She nodded. The unbearable pressure of Bölverk relieved on her arms, and she pushed, pushed with all her might. At her side, Xander joined in her efforts, putting all his weight behind Siegfried, a low, strained grunt escaping his lips as it did from hers as they pushed against an apparent immovable wall. The metal screamed and creaked, sparkles flew from where the three weapons collided. Three ideals, three lives clashing, two merging together to defeat the other.

And Bölverk was finally swept away.

The humongous axe flew across the air, repelled by the combined efforts of its smaller kin and the legendary blade of Nohr. However, the slimy arm did not lose contact with the weapon; the creature staggered back and simply extended its limb to accommodate the new distance. Nevertheless, the look of surprise, even shock, on the shapeless blob of slime was unmistakable, and so was the spike of triumphant adrenaline that followed.

They had just repelled Father.

They had openly, blatantly defied him, challenged him, and they were still standing.

The chains of fear that Camilla thought would keep her caged for the rest of eternity splintered, their deadly and cold embrace slackened.

“You are right,” Xander spoke clear and firm, and gone was the ever so conflicted Crown Prince. A King was born. Siegfried's end rose and pointed at the abomination with unflinching confidence. “I will not raise my blade against my family. Nor I will allow you to cause them harm. Never again.”

Siegfried gleamed brighter than ever; awed gasps wafted from behind their backs as an identical shimmer bounced against the walls.

“The Yato,” Camilla heard Corrin whisper in amazement. “It changed again.”

“It’s just like what happened with my Brynhildr,” Leo mused, “Interesting…”

“Look out!”

Elise's warning shout was rendered futile by the belligerent, inhuman screech the creature gurgled out of its maw. Its arm extended and whipped about, swinging the powerful axe again towards Corrin.

“ _YYoOuuuUU!!!_ ”

A flash of purple, and deadly roots had sprung from seemingly nowhere, slowing the blow. Another, and a beam of deathly energy had blown a hole into the sore excuse of a limb, nearly severing it whole. The thing screamed, whether in actual physical pain or mere anger was yet to be determined, and Corrin, now fully restored again save for the dent in her chest plate and the blood staining the silver, leapt forward, her gold blade enveloped by a thin purple glow.

“It's over, you fiend. By our combined strength and resolve, your reign of terror ends here!”

A gurgling, sickening growl was all she got back. Whatever of Garon had been left in his body was now completely gone, completely replaced by the monster.

And it was suddenly easier to breathe, to live. The axe in Camilla's hand was a pleasant weight and not a boulder tied to her wrist, the blood on her hands sang with the so similar, so different one flowing in her veins, and she knew, she _knew_ she'd been waiting for this moment her whole life, that if she was to fall here she would do so proudly, and glad to be protecting the ones she loved most.

A smile found its way to her lips. Perhaps, they still had a chance at salvation.

“Indeed, dear little sister.” She said, rising her axe higher. “Time to play.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it makes sense. Lmao prolly not


End file.
